Ro's Natural Hair Journey:: When to straighten?

I've officially been rocking my natural hair for about a month now since doing the Big Chop in October '11 I've never felt like I wanted or needed to straighten my hair. Admittedly I wore half wigs from October-April because I had to get used to un-relaxed hair and needed to find products and styles that worked best for me and my hair type.

When I embarked upon my journey to healthy and natural hair I made a promise that I wouldn't straighten for a year but today I found myself questioning that decision and even picked up and plugged in the hair dryer and flat iron.

Here's why::
I currently work in the beauty industry and while I eat,sleep and breathe beauty it's not exactly bringing in the income I'd like to have at this point. I'm a former teacher and have a pretty extensive professional background. That being said,I'm back on the job hunt and got a call for an interview tomorrow from a law firm and I automatically thought "I have to straighten my hair."

Go ahead, judge me my fellow natural hair sistas lol, but I just felt that in such a tight professional setting my hair may take attention away from my professional skills.

Ultimately I decided (after blowing my hair out):

1. That mess is a huge amount of work!
2. I love my curls too much
3. The thought damaging my hair frightened me entirely too much
4. I'll just wear a wig (curly)

At the end of the day I feel conflicted about how natural hair fits into corporate life and while I'm sure I'll strike a balance soon,I wonder if I'm just overreacting?

So to all my naturalistas, have you ever felt like your professional life stood in the way of your natural styling?

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